Happy Mother's Day and other ramblings

The Weekend
Well, Mom & Dad came down for the weekend. It was nice to see them again. My nieces' birthdays are around this time as well, which is mainly why Mom and Dad came down. I have to remember to invite them down next year for MDS&W. My parents grew up around animals back in Italy, so they would get a real kick out of seeing all of them. My younger sister(Stefania) and her husband (Eric) came down for the weekend as well. Sunday afternoon, while my Mom went to Gabriella's soccer game, my sister, hubby and Dad came over to my place. While they were over, Eric took a look at the lawn mover for me and got it working. Now I can cut what little grass that grows in my yard! Of course dad started in on the fact that I need to cut the trees down in my back yard. I have tiny backyard, but I have 6 freakin' trees back there. Six! Six tall ass trees that drop enough leaves in the fall that it looks like I have a brown blanket covering my backyard! I don't know what moron decided to plan 6 trees back there, but they did - and poorly!

Knitting
I am almost done with 1 niece's Monica tank from Knitty. Between finishing up my National Boards portfolio and studying for the test I fell a little behind. The front piece is done and the back is 90% done. I should have it done this week, thank goodness. Then I will take the other niece to the yarn shop with me so that she can pick out what colors she wants her tank in. Here is a photo of the two munchkins with my mother.

Wouldn't you know it, just after I make my pledge to knit from my stash...

While I was hanging out with the folks at my sister's house this weekend I was working on the Monica tank. My younger sister started flipping through my Interweave Crochet magazines and picked out tops she wants me to knit for her. One for her birthday (August) and the others for whatever. Then my older sister joins in and picks out a top she wants me to make her for her birthday (next month!). Here are the patterns she picked out and I think in order of preference:

And of course I don't have any of the yarns called for in the patterns. I might be able to substitute, but I have to take a closer look at my stash. I certainly hope there is something in there that I can sub at least one of those projects! If not, I hope to find a suitable substitute from Knitpicks.

Oddities
I have to wonder what possessed people to create this. I mean, who wakes up and says "Let's knit a Giant Pink Rabbit!" Seriously. Can someone tell me what where they smokin' and why aren't they sharing! *laugh*

Kitty

Of course no post would be complete without Frisco. Sunday morning I went over to my older sister's house... Yes, I am the middle child, and yes, there is definately something special about the middle child - just depends on what your definition of "special" is *laugh*... anyhoo, I went to Mary's for Mother's Day breakfast and afterwards I came home to clean the house and do laundry. I found Frisco on the dinning room table on top of my blocking pad.


I asked him if I should pin him down, spray him with water and shape him up a bit. Something tells me his response was less than favorable...

Or maybe it was his "I'm not listening to you babble at me mom" yawn. What do you think?